Lorna Kettles says members of the Scottish Women's Convention are united against the criminalisation of prostitution

Does a woman wake up in the morning and choose to sell her body? Or is she forced? This question was the focus of Women for Sale an event held by the Scottish Women’s Convention (SWC) on Saturday 3 September in Glasgow.

As an organisation, SWC believes that prostitution is a form of violence against women and girls and is, as such, both a cause and consequence of gender inequality.

We are clear – the overwhelming majority of women in prostitution are not there because they’ve made a willing, informed career choice. On the contrary, these women, more often than not, are in prostitution because they literally have no other choice. Many have suffered physical and sexual abuse from a young age and, as a result, have significant alcohol and substance misuse issues.

These women are vulnerable. They are beaten, raped and treated as commodities by men who have the power and money to buy their services

Lorna Kettles

These women are vulnerable. They are beaten, raped and treated as nothing more than commodities to be bought and sold by men who have the power and money to buy their services. Yet as the law stands, these women are criminalised because of the situation they are in while the men face little to no repercussions.

Recently the dialogue around this subject has been moving towards one of sex work as a choice for women. The SWC decided to organise this event, which was attended by women from a variety of backgrounds throughout Scotland, in order to bring the debate back to the root causes of the sex trade and violence against women.

Attendees heard from speakers with wide and varied experience of violence against women and the purchase of sex. They included Kat Banyard, the author of ‘‘Pimp State: Sex, Money and the Future of Equality’; Trish Godman, former MSP who brought forward a private member’s bill on the criminalisation of the purchase of sex; Rhoda Grant MSP, who continues to campaign on the issue within Parliament; and Linda Thompson from the Women’s Support project, an organisation which works tirelessly on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation.

All of these speakers gave interesting, informative and thought provoking presentations. The women who came along were able to ask questions. They also discussed how to encourage and persuade politicians to legislate around the sale of sex in facilitated roundtable conversations.

Women overwhelmingly supported the need to criminalise the purchase of sex. There was a strong feeling that policy and decision makers need to take forward proposals to decriminalise women and instead criminalise the men who pay for sex.

Some of comments from participants included: “Women are not for sale”, “buying sexual access to women in unacceptable in Scotland”, “future generations will thank you for stopping this behaviour.”

The SWC is preparing a report which will outline key points made by speakers at the conference, as well as analysis of what was discussed at the roundtables. Keep an eye on www.scottishwomensconvention.org for publication. If you're interested in the work of the SWC, you can also sign up to our mailing list on our website or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Lorna Kettles is the research adviser at Scottish Women's Convention